The Catalogue: No. 6

Cheap Eats (NYC Edition)

Food is one of my favorite things in this world and there are few things greater than cheap food. (Free food is probably the only thing greater than cheap food). New York is known to be expensive, especially Manhattan. Finding places to eat on Yelp that are $ is near impossible and the norm seems to be $$ to $$$ places.

 

Look at the free guac!

Here are my favorite cheap eats in New York so far:

Los Tacos No. 1
There's two locations to this delicious taco place, one near Times Square and one inside Chelsea Market. The original location is the Chelsea Market one and it's a great stop after walking The High Line. Each of the tacos are $3.50 each and that includes guac! Best part is that you can get cheese shells instead of flour or corn tortillas if you feel like treating yourself and if you're not lactose intolerant. It's not listed on the menu, but it's on their 'secret menu'.

Xi'an Famous Foods
If you're visiting New York, you definitely need to stop by this place. I love their Pork "Zha Jiang" Noodles and it's a pretty sizable portion for the price. There's a bunch of locations scattered throughout the city, but most are pretty small and have limited seating. Some do have upstairs seating though. I would warn people not to get their spicy noodles, unless they can actually handle the spice. Super yummy and definitely worth visiting once to see what the hype (from 3-5 years ago) is about!

The Halal Guys

 

Pork Zha Ziang Noodles

You can't come to New York without trying Halal Guys. They are now popping up around the world (there's a couple in Chicago, LA, Bay Area, etc.) but it originated in New York. I love that you can still find the original locations of the food stand in Midtown (except now they have covered basically all the corners surrounding that area with around 3-5 of their stands). Really good drunchie food or if you want a food coma, this meal is perfect. Make sure to get their white sauce packets and only add one or two drops of their spicy sauce because their spicy sauce is VERY spicy.

Artichoke Basille's Pizza
This place is open from 11am until 5am every day. At around $6 a slice, a person definitely only needs two slices to feel full. They don't skimp on the sauce or the size of their slices of pizza. They're obviously most famous for their Artichoke Pizza, but their Crab Pizza is apparently super good too. They can cut one slice into two if you're sharing with a friend and it is cash only.

I am not going to deny that part of the reason I moved to New York was so I could eat all the delicious food there.

CL